‘Law & Order: SVU’ season 17 spoilers: More details about Whoopi Goldberg episode

Earlier this week, the news was first revealed that Whoopi Goldberg was going to make a guest appearance on an upcoming episode of “Law & Order: SVU,” and we have a few additional details of how she will fit into the story of “Institutional Fail.” The installment airs on Wednesday, October 7, and she will be playing a Department of Child Services supervisor who finds herself in hot water over the handling of certain cases.

The synopsis below gives some insight / context into the surrounding elements of this particular case, and it also makes it clear that we are also going to see more of Peter Gallagher as the hard-nosed Chief Dodds, who we saw on a number of different occasions during season 16:

“A starving toddler found wandering the streets alone leads detectives to the home of Manuela Ozuna (guest star Jessica Pimental) and another child in grave condition. The police question Department of Child Services caseworker Keith Musio (guest star John Magaro), whose vague and backdated reports on the family suggest he hadn’t checked on the children in months. When the overworked Keith accuses his supervisor, Janette Grayson (Goldberg), of orchestrating the false reports, Chief Dodds (guest star Peter Gallagher) promises to conduct an internal investigation. But when neglect leads to death, Barba (Raúl Esparza) takes matters into his own hands and arrests them for manslaughter. Meanwhile, Dodds indicates some changes coming to Benson’s (Mariska Hargitay) squad.”

There is no doubt in our mind that Goldberg is going to give an incredible performance in this episode, mostly because you just have to look at her resume and her awards mantel for proof of what she can do.

Photo: NBC